Moments of Eternity
by Anna M. Phoenix
Summary: Different scenes of intimacy between Bane and Talia, from the tender and sweet to the sensual and erotic.
1. A Fierce Fire

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : I am still continuing _Gotham is Ours_ and _My Brother's Keeper_, but I got a request on my tumblr for a "Sexy" Balia drabble with Fire and I also had a request here for more love scenes, so this will do well for both, but it is NSFW.**

**I'm starting a new story where I will publish separate scenes between Bane and Talia that don't revolve around a continuous thread.**

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**I. A Fierce Fire**

The men were betting on arm wrestling contests; spirits were high after the demise of yet another warlord, whom they had divested of his possessions and his life.

Bane retired to the master bedroom he had claimed for himself, not for the large bed or comfort, but for the fireplace he would light up every night. He would sit there for hours looking at it, seeing Talia's profile draw out in the flames, remembering the honey color of her skin from the yellow of the flames, and her dark hair in the burning wood at the base.

The fire was already ablaze when he came in, so he knew he wouldn't have to fantasize tonight, and his heartbeat started to run. Though she was hidden by the curtains from the balcony, he recognized her walk instantly; her expression brightened when she saw him and it was all the brighter framed by her dark locks.

He hadn't known when she would be back. They had parted a few weeks ago because she had to go back to Europe and they cellular connection was unreliable. It couldn't have been on a better night for their reunion. He was tired, but he was in a celebrating mood.

She was wearing western clothes but no makeup – from the smudge on her lips, he could infer she had wiped it clean and he was grateful for that. He didn't like it when she painted her face; she had no need for it.

"You had a long day," she said in their dialect, immediately erasing any doubt that she was no longer Talia. She sat down and waited for him to join her near the fireplace. He sat right next to her. She immediately stood on her knees to his side and planted a kiss on his eyebrow, then she walked behind him to effortlessly remove his vest, and she started massaging his shoulders. The analgesic distributed by his mask allowed him to function by keeping the pain at a tolerable level, but he wasn't numb. His body endured hardship daily, and the only human contact he had was through combat. His muscles were unaccustomed to softness; despite meditation to relax his mind and body, his entire musculature was always tense. But, under her small kneading hands, he could enjoy a sensation he seldom had, except in a warm bath or in the depth of sleep: relief.

"I'm not pressing too hard, am I?" she asked, seemingly seriously. He couldn't help but laugh. She giggled the way she now rarely did and started kissing the scar on his spine. It was one of the most sensitive parts of his body; any stimulation burned through him, like hot coals. Her warmth, her stroke and her breath were fueling the fire in his stomach and he felt the blood rush through him.

She wasn't unaware of his reaction, her own fire having been ignited. She quickly took off her dress and negligee and pressed her chest to his back, the pebbles of her hard nipples gently nudging at his skin, while her tongue licked his neck.

He turned his head and his shoulder followed, so that he could reach for her. She flicked away, a coquettish smile spreading on her lips. "Patience," she teased while she took off the nylon stockings she had on and the rest of her ridiculous accoutrements. Patience in these situations was not Bane's forte, so he put a leg up and adopted a crouched position, ready to leap - looking like a lion, carefully eyeing her movements. She was surprised and titillated by his attitude.

"After we look after you," she told him gently, going towards the cooler to get his liquid food and the various syringes for his injections of nutriments.

He stood up and sat on a plain wooden chair while she quickly gave him his shots. She then brought a watch and the essentials to clean the mask and his toiletries. All the while, she wasn't hiding her nakedness, letting her curves be beautifully lit by the fire. She reached out for the poker to strike the wood and free numerous red sparks; she might as well have been stroking at him, for his desire was ardent again.

She unfastened the mask, after administering a local anesthetic that had taken years to perfect, and put it down next to the chair. Once the mask was off, as the anesthesia was taking effect, she cupped his face between her breasts and he held the small of her back as she kissed his skull. Too soon she extracted her body and she quickly wiped his wounds and reached for the container with his food, but he stopped her.

"I'm have another hunger to quench tonight," he said as he hooked a finger inside her to signify his intentions. She looked at him with apprehension. She didn't want him to try something that would weaken or hurt him, but she knew from his eyes that she wouldn't deter him.

Time was of the essence, so he speedily grabbed her and brought her down near the fireplace, gently spreading her over a rectangular coffee table he expressly dragged under her. He parted her legs so he could kneel between them. Bane was completely hard but he paid no mind to his erection; he lifted her buttocks and brought her legs to his shoulders, his head nudged between her thighs. She was trembling in anticipation, those precious seconds feeling like hours.

Soon enough he buried his face into her, letting her drape over his mouth and nose, taking the time to inhale her for the very first time. She opened her mouth and gasped, her hands, reaching between her legs but stopping short of touching him, not wanting to distract him.

He started tasting her. Grabbing the hair on her mound was all Talia could do to restrain herself as his tongue contoured every one of her folds. She felt her legs instinctively close on his head when the rough scarred skin above his lips gently scrapped her slit, the few specks of beard tickling her sensitive flesh. His hands held on more firmly to her hips but were large enough to touch her pelvis and nudge her legs to open wider.

Talia was licking her lips. She knew her nub was already engorged and soon enough his tongue found it and played with it mercilessly, then glided down to explore inside her, licking the whole of her entrance, while his nose kept nudging at her red, throbbing bud. She was having spasms, her hands grabbed his as the tip of his tongue found her spot and teased it until she convulsed and her release flowed in his mouth. He returned to the junction of her lips, to keep her flowing, delighting in her taste. She was having spasms again, biting one of her fingers not to scream. A few other men had done this to her, but she was always vaguely annoyed by them, despite the physical arousal; there was always a cool, artificial flame, but this… this burning was hot and exquisite.

Before she opened her eyes again, the remaining sparks fed the flames in Bane's eyes, and he drove inside her and quickly came himself. He had been struggling not to unravel during the experience, which was as overwhelming for him as it was for her. He had endured so he could fill her as she filled him. He didn't let himself be completely drained and immediately retracted and went back down so that, in the most unique experience, he tasted them together. He came up for air again, then plunged back deeply into her and brought her to sit on his lap, still connected, and he joined his mouth to hers. Their chests pressed together tightly, for the first time completely eliminating any space between them. They kissed until their fire was snuffed out and they were left with the warm embers of the afterglow.

They both opened their eyes, for they hadn't needed to look at each other to imagine their kiss tonight. Talia broke their very real kiss and breathlessly grabbed the watch to look at the time. Incredibly, they still had almost two minutes left. Their fire had burned so fierce, it had been over in a flash. She had never seen her lover smile so contently, had never seen him have such a glowing aura after bliss.

She went to grab the mask to be ready once the time was done. She held it between them and looked at him, while he caressed her back. She gently cleaned his mouth and put the mask back on before she saw pain in his eyes. She kept her body close to his chest and followed as he lay on his back on the rug. She held her hands to his collarbone and put her chin on the muzzle of his mask, looking at him with a smile. "It was worth the wait."

His big hand took one of hers and squeezed it, then his eyes blinked in agreement.


	2. In Sickness

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : I am continuing my separate scenes and this one illustrates another form of intimacy between Bane and Talia rather than being purely sexual. It has to do more with tender love than lustful love this time.**

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**II. In Sickness**

Bane, seven of his men, and Talia had made their home in an abandoned asylum, in a decrepit Siberian town for a month now. They had abducted a prominent Ukrainian biochemist and put him to work on perfecting an anesthetic that would allow the masked man to temporarily remove the mask. Talia had found the man and sent the information to Bane, who had orchestrated the rest. They supplied the scientist with whatever he needed and he concocted different formulas. However, the results had not be fruitful and Bane had to endure several side effects ranging from being completely unconscious the entire time to being jerky and not able to control his reflexes. He had spent a good hour vomiting after one of his last injections. Talia had cleaned him up while trying to keep the mask over his mouth to spare him pain, not caring that she got soiled in the process.

She was the only one who had seen him so retched. He felt completely diminished, but he never saw pity or disgust on her face – just pure rage that cost the doctor two of his toes (since she had to spare his other limbs for him to work). She could truly be vicious, but had Bane not been bedridden and delirious for a day after – and hidden from his men except Barsad – he would have been much more ruthless. He had a mind to stop the experiment altogether, but Talia was relentless. Since they had reunited after his excommunication from the League of Shadows, she had endeavored to perfect the mask and try to find ways for him to be without it for a time. When he had gotten the apparatus, it had become another prison of sorts, caging his face. It was a constant reminder of his lost humanity. He had intravenous options allowing him to take it off only a few minutes to consume liquid food that supplemented his daily injections, but it made him weak. In all the years they had known each other, Bane and Talia had only shared a handful of true, but fleeting kisses; aside from her resolve to relieve his pain, those memories were the reason he continued with the pursuit, hoping against all odds that it would be possible for their lips to meet again.

He was in a large therapeutic bath that Barsad had helped him fill with scolding hot water. They had heated two large cauldrons over the stove and the fireplace in the kitchen (the water heater being out of commission). The plaster on the walls was falling and the linoleum floor was chipped, but they had cleaned the bathroom as much as they could.

Once the large tub was filled, Barsad had left and Bane had waited for the water to cool just a few seconds before getting in, confident he could take the heat. He faintly felt the burn; it was but a small sting adding to the pain he felt constantly. He kept the latest drug conjured by the doctor on the side, but he waited for Talia. She had gone earlier to the nearby village for supplies and Barsad was instructed to tell her to come here when she came back, and keep the other men far away. She always wore a headscarf around his men and let no one from the outside see her. Though the mercenaries could figure out she was a woman by her petite frame and her piercing eyes (decorated by long, curly black lashes), only Bane and Barsad knew her face. The others only knew as a shadow, Bane's shadow.

She came in covered in a heavy layers. She undid the headscarf after she closed the door and put a chair at an angle under the doorknob to block it.

She took off her coat and kept her warm wool turtleneck sweater and black stockings and legwarmers. She took the syringe and examined it. Bane didn't say a word and followed her with his eyes. He was completely submerged to his shoulders, his legs outstretched at the bottom and his arms resting on each side of the tub. Talia put the syringe down and went to stand behind him. She started rubbing his broad shoulders and his neck. He was always tense, but he was particularly rigid now. He had even jerked a bit when she had picked up the syringe. She knew he wasn't afraid of the pain; he was afraid of how it could incapacitate him and she hated the doctor more each time he put her sweet friend through such ordeals. She would never take his death well, but she would never forgive herself if he were to die such an insignificant death. He was a warrior that deserved an honorable and glorious end, which she hoped would never be before hers (though she knew she wouldn't waste much time joining him – that, she promised herself).

She finally felt him unwind and she kissed his shaved head. He closed his eyes and leaned back. She grabbed his pecks and squeezed them just a bit, then gently went back to massaging his neck. He had spent all her life protecting and guiding her; now, through the years and this experiment, their roles switched in those moments, when she was taking charge. Though more than fifteen years separated them, she was no longer a child and there were now equals. Since they had become lovers, they were interchangeably friends, partners, siblings, child and parent to one another as well. He had showed his physical and emotional bareness to her during intimacy, but she felt honored to see his psychological vulnerability when his strength was drained. He could be finished right in those moments, and he let her see it. Her strong, powerful giant let her see him fall and let her help him up. Her father would never have fathomed showing her such weakness, but her Bane was man enough and loved her enough to share it with her... just like she could share all her weaknesses only with him.

As she mused, she started to hum, while she continued to stroke and work his muscles until she stealthily took the syringe while he was concentrating on her strokes and plunged the needle in his neck to inject the medicine. She was always fearful the doctor had tampered with the formula, that he would try to poison Bane, but they had kidnapped his family and kept them in the Ukraine to ensure his cooperation, showing proof of life videos ever so often.

Bane took her hand and she waited for him to loosen his grip before she slowly took off his mask. His distorted mouth was chapped and bleeding, and his chin had a few infected sores, but she didn't care. She delicately wiped his face with a facecloth and smiled when she saw his features relax in what she thought was a grin. His face suddenly distorted and his jaw started to slacken; he started drooling and making a weak moaning sound, his face completely slack, and his eyes rolling in their sockets.

She was used to controlling her fears, but the panic took over her heart. She couldn't call for help, even Barsad, because Bane had made her promise she would kill him before another human being saw him in such a diminished state, so exposed. His face was only for her to see and she cherished the privilege. She held his chin in both her hands, pressing his head on her chest as she bent forward over him to kiss his lips, hoping the reaction was only very temporary. His head started slipping from her hands as his body went limp and collapsed in the water, sending a wave over to the floor. She immediately tried to grab him under his arms but his huge mass didn't allow it. She wasn't strong enough. He was going to drown; the tub was deep enough and long enough for him to slip. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest, sending a huge lump of terror in her throat.

She immediately leapt around him and climbed in the tub, completely dressed, spreading his legs apart so that she could kneel between them and stop him for slipping further. She extended her right foot to the side of the bathtub so that she could brace herself against his sliding mass. She pushed her entire body on his chest; her arms surrounded his waist to hold him up. She finally found a position that kept them balanced and she pushed her face in his shoulder, having trouble breathing, but not daring to weaken her push. The water was burning hot and her hands (as the rest of her body, assuredly) were crimson, but she didn't move. She held her posture and murmured encouraging words. He couldn't hear them but he at least felt her breath and the vibration of her voice on his skin. She cramped up but she didn't relent until he finally regained some muscle control, only to be constricted by pain. He almost crushed her arm when his hand violently clenched her. He realized was he was doing long enough to push her off and out of the bath. She landed painfully on the floor, but she pushed herself up on her elbows. He leaned over, his hand frantically searching while his ragged breath accelerated. She grabbed the mask and helped him put it over his head in a rush. He kept his head and arm hanging from the bathtub. He was wheezing and drooling uncontrollably under his mask. He painfully tried to close his mouth, the grueling effort pushing his cheeks up the side of the mask and squeezing tears from his tightly shut eyes.

Talia was soaked, burnt and bruised, but she felt more pain seeing him whimper and suffer this way. She had a mind to gut the doctor's wife in retaliation, but she calmed herself. She stood on her knees in front of him and rubbed his neck before she brought his face to her own neck, his mask muzzling her collarbone. "We'll try again my friend'" she said tenderly, hating herself for pushing him on. He let out a grunt. She raised his head so he could look at her. He responded "yes," and she knew he was, yet again, enduring for her.

She helped him turn and sit back in the tub, before she quickly stripped from her wet clothes and hoped in, immersing herself in the boiling water despite the redness of her skin. She molded her body over his, as easily as ever, and he closed his arms over her. She kept her chin on the hand she had put on his chest and look at him until his eyes were clear again. She wiped the remnant tears off his cheeks and her fingers caressed his mask. "Only if you want to," she added him, no longer able to justify imposing this torture on him. He caressed her arm and said "yes", hoping she would understand that he would never stop trying for her, but also for himself. He pressed her closer.

"You are perfect," she told him. He knew she meant other words by that, words that conveyed what filled their hearts, but that they never said to one another, perhaps out of fear the words would not do justice to how they felt.


	3. Waves of Desire

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note: I am back from vacation. I got a request on Tumblr to write about Bane and Talia making love in the water so I thought it would go well in _Moments of Eternity_. Since they are all separate scenes, the are not in chronological order (for example, in my mind, Chapter 1 - A fierce Fire happened after Chapter 2 - In Sickness). This story doesn't have a particular determined time.**

**I hope you enjoy!**

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**III. Waves of Desire**

Talia started running towards her imposing opponent. She used his bended knee as a step to push herself on his back and wrap her free leg around his waist, while her fist prepared to punch the side of his skull.

The large man was swifter than his size would conceivably allow and he countered by grabbing her wrist before her knuckles hit his head. He easily flipped her over his shoulder and grabbed her waist to press her against him and lock her in his arms. Talia quickly shimmied her hips, bumping against his groin, then pushed her knees up before she hit his leg with both feet. His foot slid in the sand and they both toppled forward. His muscular right arm darted towards the ground to hold up his torso before he crushed her.

She had fallen face down, but she turned on her back underneath him. She was out of breath and had a large smile stretching across her face, knowing it was the brush of her body that had made him lose his footing."Had I thrown sand in your face, I would have had you," she declared triumphantly though she was pinned down. They had been sparing almost an hour, not holding back, but trying to be careful not to really injure one another.

Bane smiled and brushed away the sand sticking on her cheek. "You have me regardless," he said as he caressed her skin with his large thumb. He pushed himself up and helped her to stand. She tried to shake off the sand but it caked on her sweaty skin so she swiftly undressed and started walking towards the sea. Bane looked at her walk away, his gaze traveling along her back, glistening in the sun, to her round buttocks. She turned her head sideways and lifted her eyebrows as an invitation before she started walking in the water.

Bane was already bare-chested and barefoot, so he speedily took off his pants and back brace, then followed her. She had stopped where the water reached up to her waist and had turned around to face him. Goosebumps quickly moved up her arms and the rest of her body from the nice chill of the water.

The late-day sunrays and pearly sweat bronzed her lover's chest and accentuated his stature as he strode slowly up to her, the water only reaching him just above mid-thigh. Her mouth opened in admiration. He lowered his head and brought her chin up to look at him. She exhaled her desire as her hand caressed his large forearm. He scooped up some water with his right hand and splashed it on her heaving chest, washing away the last specks of sands from her shoulder and sternum. She caressed his large neck and were his mask met his skin, then she let her head fall back into his left palm and fell backwards. He let her gently lean back until she was floating on her back perpendicularly, his right hand holding her lower back. Her hair started to dance around her head in the water. She looked slightly unnerved, but she tilted back, closing her eyes, and dipped her entire head in the sea. She took it out of the water a few moments later, his hand supporting her neck at the surface. She saw the frown on his face from his brow. They had learned to swim as part of their training in the League of Shadows, but it was not one of Talia's strengths, though she only showed her nervousness to him. Bane was a better swimmer, though the mask didn't allow him to sink his head underwater for more than a few minutes. His face relaxed when she dunked her head again and grinned.

Bane allowed his eyes to take in the sight of her nudity and he couldn't hide his arousal. Once he was sure she could float on her own, his right hand caressed its way back to her stomach, circling around her belly button, then hesitantly brushing its way up to her breast, hovering just above her dark, hard nipple. Talia let out a whimper of anticipation and pushed her chest up slightly so his large palm could cup her breast. She put one of her hands above his and pushed it on her, letting him know she wanted his touch. His left fingers, which supported her neck, started caressing her nape, making her shiver. His right hand kneaded her breast more and more insistently. She licked her salty lips when he looked back at her and made sure his gaze followed her hand, which she pressed between her thighs. She breathed heavily and jerked her chin, silently pleading him to follow her lead. Her other hand wrapped around his hard cock and she started stroking him with the same force with which she was rubbing herself. The splish-splash of the water around them became noisier.

He hesitated in abandoning her upper curves, but the pressure he felt below stirred him on. His hand followed the same path as hers; he stopped to let his fingers tangle in the black hair that guarded her entrance. She removed her hand and he took over, his fingers finding her cave. He let them nestle there in her moist warmth, which contrasted with the cool waves that gently licked his wrist. The heat of her flesh and the rocking the waves titillated his erection and pressed him to speed up his caresses. She held on to his left arm, as solid as a rock, while his other hand spread her open more and more roughly. Her body naturally sank in the water but his hand now half-buried inside her, lifted her up and she grabbed hold of his shoulders, pressing her wet chest to his. "More," she whispered breathlessly and his strokes became more violent. She could feel his hardness beneath her and he was getting impatient to get inside her. His fingering grew more exquisitely painful as he added digits to make his passage. As always he was controlled, knowing his hand could have ripped her apart if he so chose. She hummed her pleasure in his neck and he had to stop a second to be able to keep his restraint. If it were possible to enter his whole body in her, he would have let her consume him completely.

She continued jerking the length of his shaft, but he was already as hard as iron. She pushed herself up, letting him know she was ready for him. As they most often did, their eyes locked as he slowly – so slowly – pushed himself in her, relishing the sensation of her burning walls surrounding his throbbing member, the heat contrasting with the cold water.

She let herself be impaled, letting him torture her with the slowness of his penetration. She had to bite her lower lip and to close her eyes a few times, but she opened them back to gaze in his, which were burning with lust. Once he was completely locked in her, he walked her further offshore, keeping her above water as the tide rose above his navel. They let themselves get rocked by the gentle movement of the sea. His hand pressed her hard to him, her breasts completely crushed on his pecs. They had been molded to fit together, despite the years past and their size difference, they still fused perfectly.

She was immobilized on him, so she gently rubbed her heels on his lower back, careful not worsen his injury, giving him the go ahead to ride her – and he did. The water started flapping around loudly as he pelted her increasingly rapidly, firmly holding her down to him so he could go as deep as possible, until his tip touched her limit, kissing her deeply from inside and eliciting muffled yelps that powered the storm inside him. The waves they created around them now rolled up to their shoulders. He felt her tense up so he released his grip and let her arch her back. Her hair dipped in the sea below; her breasts jerkily followed the movement of his thrusts. As always, he wanted her to come first; her face was contorting and her breathing got heavy, but he was about to be taken in by his own whirlpool, so he lowered her on her back and she held on to his biceps so her head would stay above water and he started stroking her and pumping into her at an frantic rate, her jaw slackened and her mouth opened in silent ecstasy. He finally saw the crease between her brows as she shut her eyes and her body shivered violently, confirming he had undone her. He immediately brought her body back to his. She half-opened her eyelids as he continued his delicious assault until the tidal wave couldn't be contained and trashed against her walls.

He let his mask rest on her neck, exhausted, and listened to her swallow her pleasure. "Stay in me" she whispered, so he stopped the flood just before he was drained, keeping himself firmly embedded inside her. He raised his head to look at her; his pupils were glazed over. She gently pressed her fingers on the mask and he mimicked her touch on her lips, which she pursed to kiss his fingers and then lick them hungrily.

The sun had now almost set, the sky was purple and pink and the waster was growing dark. He turned around, with her firmly latched on to him, and started to walk towards the beach where he firmly intended to crash his wave on her once more.


	4. What Dreams May Come

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : I got a drabble request on Tumblr to write a dream sequence about Bane (without injuries) in the Pit and a mi-twenties Talia would be lowered down after being excommunicated by her father. Bane would protect her, they would become intimate and her father would come back for her.**

**I finally got around to doing it and, since it deals with intimacy, I thought it would fit in nicely with _Moments of Eternity._****This is set before the other three. Some NSFW content.**

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**IV. What Dreams May Come**

The clamor became louder. Bane couldn't ignore it any longer. They were lowering a prisoner; by the catcalls, he could infer it was a woman, probably a prostitute. She would either willingly give herself or be ravaged by the mob – he had seen it enough times, though not a lot of women were condemned to the pit. He waited in dread for her screams, going back to washing his shirt in some rainwater he had collected.

When the shrieks came, though, they weren't female. That was the sound of men in agony. What was this? The young, broad-shouldered man stood up and immediately made his way to the well, the pit's entrance. He was shocked immobile when he saw three men dead on the floor, two others holding broken limbs and trying to escape. At the center, was a young woman, with a long dark-brown braid that seemed to dance around around her like a feline tail, while she was jumping from one assailant to the next, crushing bones, twisting arms, using splinters and rocks to impale and slit.

She was ruthless, determined, but calm – a calmness that only served to increase the ire of the mob that grew larger and more feral, tugging at her hair, reaching for her clothes…she wouldn't be able to beat them all up and they would tear her apart.

Bane had been partially stunned by admiration but he realized she wouldn't last much longer when a man yanked at her braid and had her fall on the ground where they descended upon her. Bane was a tall youth that had built himself up in the pit; he was a fierce opponent but mainly kept to himself. As such, he hadn't been in skirmish for a while and he was a bit hesitant in his strategy, but he quickly made a beeline to reach her, throwing bodies in his path, pushing the ones than resisted and yanking the men off her.

Her clothes had been partially torn up and she was bruised when he discovered her but her eyes were as defiant as ever. He smiled silently and she misinterpreted it as him claiming him for himself, so she threw one of her legs at him to kick him, but he quickly grabbed it with his large palm, then grabbed both her wrists with his other hand. She was so slender, it wasn't difficult.

He quickly tossed her over his shoulders and held her limbs near his chest like he would a goat or a sheep. She immediately tried to bite him and he shook his head in time, "Stop that unless you want to kill both of us,'" he whispered curtly as he was kicking another inmate to make his way to his cell. He stepped on the face of another, caving it in."She's mine," he finally roared so they would keep out of his way.

Once in his cell, he threw her on his cot near the wall and then stepped to the other side of the cell. She was on her all four on the cot, looking like a huge cat, eyeing him. He also held a leaping stance, but, when their eyes finally locked, they both calmed down… as if they knew each other, though they had never met. They got caught in each other for a few minutes, then relaxed their bodies and sat one in front of the other.

"Bane" the young man said. "Talia" she answered.

"You're an assassin," he added. "Why are you here?"

She sustained his look for a minute and answered: "My father condemned me," then said no more and he didn't ask anything else.

From then, time seemed to jump. He didn't remember the days, just that they shared his cell and felt more and more at ease together. The prison seemed to have disappeared. He remembered their time as shorts scenes. She would look at him work out, while sprawled out on the cot. Another time, they shared food, and a smile.

One night, he heard straining, and the moonlight revealed she was doing push ups. He sat up from the floor where he had been sleeping and looked at her. She sat on her knees panting. Her eyes were glinting through the dark. She stood up off the rags that served as clothes and walk towards him, her body lit in dark blue. She was magnificent. She couldn't see his face, but she heard his breathing accelerate and when she was up to him, she could feel his hot breath over her pelvis, so she pressed herself to him. Soon enough, he grabbed her buttocks while his tongue lapped across her slit. She pushed her hips forward so he could have better access and he eagerly took her clit in his mouth and suckled it. She moaned and glided her fingers through his dark, short hair. He jerked her up as his tongue darted inside her.

She grabbed the bars and then she felt him shift and slide himself between her and the bars, licking his way up her stomach, around her navel, between her breast, where he took the time to suck on each one, then her neck and, finally, her mouth found his soft full lips, and their tongues joined.

He straightened his knees and lifted her up as he was almost a feet taller than her. They didn't break their kiss – tugging with their teeth, exploring with their tongues. He carried her to the cot and lowered her on it. She quickly grabbed his shaft and consumed it eagerly, drawing out the first drops of his arousal. He turned her over and licked her sex once more; traveling between her buttocks and up her spine as her hands gently squeezed his balls. He nibbled on her neck and turned her head so he could kiss her again as he penetrated her. They both grunted as he was plowing her.

He brushed her hair out of the way so he could make out her face in the dim light. He caressed her until she started trembling; then, he grabbed her waist firmly and starting jerking until he toppled over beside her, drenched in sweat.

She snuggled up comfortably against him as if they were matching puzzle pieces. Time jumped again and, one morning, while they were playing a game with ropes, the prison seemed to resurface in their thoughts and their heard a commotion not unlike the one when she came. Dark shadows move around as screams resonated throughout the pit. Talia and Bane instinctively stayed close when two men clad in black came to their cell. They easily broke the lock (even though it locked for inside), then just stood there. Talia's back straightened and she stood up when a third man came in and walked towards her. He took off his black mask and revealed himself a tall blond caucasion with a groomed mustache, and the same blue eyes as Talia.

"Time to go home…" he stated.

"Yes father," Talia answered in a somewhat defeated tone. She turned to Bane and said with a shy smile: "This is my friend and protector, Bane."

Her father gave him a disdainful look and responded: "They'll be no need for that now."

Her eyes widened in understanding and she tried to go back to Bane, but the two other men grabbed her, while her father swiftly stroke Bane's windpipe. The young man shut his eyes in pain and only glimpsed her being taken away. His hand couldn't reach out to her as he moved it to his throat and then fell down.

Bane's body fell hard on the floor from his bed, waking him up. He turned on his back, out of breath, and quickly heard the whizzing of his mask. He knew then that it had been a dream; he was the one who had been excommunicated and cast off by Talia's father, he could never kiss her as he wanted with his scarred lips and – worst of all – even in dreams, Talia was being taken from him. He shut his eyes to prevent tears from falling...Tears forming to soothe a pain his mask could never heal.


	5. Dreamcatcher

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : I had a request on Tumblr that asked a drabble about Talia having a nightmare about her mother after she and Bane made love and him comforting her, though he knew she would always have these nightmares. Since it doesn't follow the other stories and involves intimacy, it's a perfect fit for Moments of Eternity.**

**I should be posting another chapter very soon following another drabble request that also fit here.**

**Belle de Sainte Ange, as always, thank you for your encouragement. I will try to write up your request this week.**

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**V. Dreamcatcher**

Bane and Talia were staying in a remote cottage in the Alps. They had a few hours for themselves so they quickly embraced each other. Soon after, their bodies were intertwined in front of the fireplace. This rare uninterrupted time of solitude gave them the opportunity to savor the moment. Bane had his back on the rug; he was watching Talia straddle him and roll her hips while they locked hands, hers squeezing more firmly when she closed her eyes to take more of him in. He let her set the pace, admiring how her movements sent waves from her belly up to her chin, which she pointed towards the ceiling when she finally lowered herself down to the hilt.

She released his hands and plunged her nails in his large chest to secure herself as her body started sprinting above him. He bent his knees to lock himself on the floor and took hold of her thighs so he wouldn't lose an inch inside her when she rocked back to him. She neared her face to his and she smiled broadly before she threw herself backwards, her dark hair flying in the air as she let out a deep sigh. He bucked upwards and a moan escaped her, though she tried to restraint it. She was about to look back at him with glee, but the crackling sound of the fire made her shiver instead.

Inexplicably, it reminded her of the sound the cell door had made when it was violently opened and slammed into the wall, when men poured into their cell and attacked her mother. Her smile turned sour and she closed her eyes to prevent tears from streaming down. She had gone rigid, so she willed herself to continue the motion, but Bane had noticed – as he always did.

She felt his large, rough hand on her cheek, gently trying to pull her head down so she would look at him. She wasn't ready yet, so she started moving frantically, but his other hand forcibly stopped her hip and he sat up so he could look at her face. His thumb, rubbed just under her eye to plead her to open it. She inhaled, put on a smile and looked in his dark eyes, trying to appease the worry in them.

"What is it?"

She knew it was pointless to say "nothing". She pressed her lips and simply answered: "Memories of painful times… when we were not together. I'm sorry." She didn't want to elaborate more. He grabbed her head with both hands, his fingers deep in her dark curls as he searched for more details in her face.

"I'm here, now… till forever," he told her in a slow, earnest tone. His eyes were so soft and so gentle that she wrapped her arms around his neck and nodded, a genuine smile drawing itself out of her clenched lips, while she let a tear fall down her cheek.

"You feel me inside?" he asked. Of course she did, there wasn't a slit of space between their flesh, "You feel me?" he repeated, putting his hand over her left breast. "You feel me inside?"

She put her hand on his and squeezed it over her heart. "Yes," she responded with a chocked voice, and she repeated her affirmation until the sadness had gone from her voice; she repeated it, still holding his hand on her as they started to move back and forth again, repeating the word as they climaxed, and one last time before she fell asleep in his arms, his hand still lying above her heart.

Bane didn't join her in sleep; he caressed her hair and let his fingers slide above her heartbeat. When he was sure she was deep in slumber, he picked her up, brought her to the couch and put a blanket over her.

She didn't wake when his warm hand left her breast, but she felt the chill of its absence. She had been having a dream of herself as a child, back in the Pit. Her mother had been humming a song as little Talia was resting her head on her legs. All of a sudden, her mother stopped singing - just when her body had felt Bane's heat leave her.

Little Talia looked up to her mother, but she didn't have time to see her face; she heard the sound of the cell door crash on the wall, accompanying a dozen hands reaching out around her mother. She could only see one of her mother's arms jutting out from the mass of men that were carrying her away.

The screams died out. The little girl was left in the dark alone with the bloodied corpse of her mother at her feet. It was so cold now that her breath was like vapor. The small girl walked up to the nude, ravaged body of her mother. There were no other sounds but the child's cries. Everything was still... until the mother's cold hand caught the girl's wrist. Little Talia, in horror, saw the beaten face of her mother – her eyes were wild and blood ran down her mouth. "Talia, you let me die," the corpse said.

The child started shaking her head, wanting to scream and trying to back away, but her undead mother tightened her grip. "You have no heart," the dead woman spat out while her cold dead hand approached the child's chest, clenched like a claw above her heart, and plunged in the girl's ribcage.

Talia woke up screaming and clutched her chest. Bane was in another room when he heard her yell and sprinted back in. He promptly took her in his arms.

She looked at him wildly. "I have no heart," she said desperately. He sat on the couch and brought her on him. "I have no heart, I let her die," she sobbed.

He understood that she had had a nightmare about her mother. "No, child, you didn't let her die," he replied calmly. He put his palm on her heart again. "You do, you have a heart. It's there; I can feel it. I'm in there."

She started wailing as she grabbed his hand again and pressed her face on his neck, bringing her knees up so she was rolled-up in a ball on him. He pushed his hand and hers on his own chest so she could feel his heartbeat. "You feel it? It only beats because of your heart".

She calmed down and kissed his neck, while she pressed her chest to his so that she could feel his pulse drumming against her own. He wrapped one muscular arm under her buttocks and brought his other hand to caress her head like he had done when she was a tiny child, when he had taken her away from her mother's killers. He knew he had never taken her away from the Pit, that – just like him – she had never truly escaped it, and that these nightmares would follow them to their graves.


	6. You're the Only Fire I Need

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : I had another request on Tumblr for a drabble about Talia finding Bane in a cave after he was excommunicated and they make love. Again, a great fit for Moments of Eternity. :)**

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**VI. You're the Only Fire I Need**

Talia was hiding behind a rock formation near where Bane and his men had set up camp. They had selected a mountain range in the desert because it was punctured with caves. She kept far enough to avoid being seen by the patrolling snipers, but she had to make a move soon. The sun had almost disappeared and with the darkness came a bitter cold. She was weak and exhausted; she knew she wouldn't be able to survive a night without shelter.

So much time had passed since her father had excommunicated Bane and thrown him out in the freezing night. Ra's al Ghul had kept her prisoner in the compound for weeks afterwards, and then shipped her back to Switzerland under heavy guard. After initially rebelling, she had played the part of the dutiful daughter, even feigned interest when he sent word he had found a new protégée – Bruce, his name was – that would be suitable for her. "Suitable" - she nearly threw up when she got her father's message. There was only one suitable man for her. As soon as her father let her have more freedom, she promptly disappeared and sent a note telling him she would never forgive him for casting out Bane.

She had searched the world for months, had fucked and killed many men for information and finally found learned about a masked mercenary on the African continent. She eventually tracked him down. He had formed a new Brotherhood. His men were good and he was making them better. She was almost caught by a young sniper with a trimmed beard in the jungle a week back, but she had succeeded in eluding him. She observed at a distance, fearing he no longer needed or wanted her.

Talia had followed their convoy to the desert. She was half a day away, going by camel's back and covered from head to toe to look like a local merchant, had they spotted her with binoculars. She had set out on foot when she started seeing the smoke of the fires the men had made at dusk so she could approach with stealth. Her arduous journey under the scorching sun was not unlike the one she had made after escaping the Pit and it brought back painful memories; this time, however, she was walking towards her protector, not away from him.

She had identified which cave Bane was in. He had set up a crude draped entrance with rods but had gone back to the main bonfire until the night fell. He had spent some time with his men, before he had silently nodded them goodnight and retired. She needed to get to him before he fell asleep - waking him up by surprise could get her killed.

She needed to get to his lair unseen – how idiotic would it be to get shot so close to him. Her reflexes weren't as good as usual, the sun had been harsh, she was spent and the cold was now biting.

She could see light through the tarp at the entrance – he had made a fire inside the cave. The notion warmed her heart. She swiftly slipped through the side of tarp and put her back to the wall to check if someone had noticed her. She was about to turn around to go towards the fire when a massive hand yanked her by the shoulder and pushed her to the other side. She just had time to move her head before Bane's fist smashed into the stone. "Bane," Talia yelled, loosing her footing and falling at his feet. She immediately removed the fabric covering her mouth and looked up to him.

His eyes were enraged when he looked down at the intruder, but when she revealed her face, a face that was etched in his soul, his eyes looked lost. He thought he was hallucinating when he heard her voice. It couldn't be her. He had felt her presence during the day, but had just understood it to be his longing that was especially painful. Yet... here she was. She was pale, save for the sunburns around her eyes, her lips were chapped, but it was Talia.

He brought her to her feet and roughly took the scarf off her hair and petted it away from her face, framing her head in his palms. His eyes searched ever detail, wondering how a ghost could seem and feel so real. She put her hand over his warm chest – he was always so warm – and he felt how cold she was. Her expression was pleading and she hesitantly put her other hand on him and slowly surrounded his neck, where she caressed his throat and the skin right under his mask.

"You're here," he said in Arabic, with his voice breaking through his mask.

"Yes," she answered in their dialect from the Pit. "I left my father."

He immediately looked worried and glanced at the entrance, expecting assassins to come in at any moment. He protectively brought her to his chest.

"He won't come for us," she told him as she started kissing his neck. "I've shamed him by choosing you."

He looked back at her and raised her chin with his index finger.

"Did you want me to stay away?" she asked him, worried by his silence.

He shook his head and she saw his lower lash holding up a few droplets. He couldn't find the words to tell her how much her absence had tortured him.

She raised her hand to his mask, drew out all of the piping with her fingers. It had been slightly modified, but she knew it by heart. Talia rubbed the tip of her fingers over the mesh, where she could feel his hot breath. She slowly got up on her toes and pressed her lips against the muzzle of his mask, letting her mouth open so he could feel her breath in return. He brought her closer and closed his eyes, letting a small tear escape his eye and go down his right cheek.

He bent to grab her legs so he could carry her over to the fire. He had put up netting over a mattress that he had unrolled on the ground, near one of the walls. He had a few cases of various supplies arranged around the fire

He knelt down near the fire and gently put her on his knees. She nuzzled closer to him. She was getting warmer already. He reached out for a gourd to give her water and she swallowed almost the entire container. She wanted to give it back to him and ration, but he insisted she drink it all, rubbing his thumb over her cheek as she did. He could see she was dehydrated. It pained him to think how long she had been alone, facing the elements, and what she had gone through to find him. Her hands started to travel over the muscles of his chest and arm, as her newly wet lips explored their own path on him. How he had missed her touch, and her mouth. She grabbed his hand to kiss his bloody knuckles but he wouldn't let her. He wished he had broken his hand, so ashamed was he about attacking her.

He started taking off her boots, making sure he didn't deny his body her kisses in the process. He was horrified to discover her blistered feet. Still holding on to her, he reached back to get a first aid kit, and thoroughly cleaned and bandaged her toes and soles, while she kept her mouth pressed on his shoulder. Once he was done, he pressed his mask gently on her forehead. He just needed to make sure they were really safe, so he started standing up; she immediately grabbed his pants in panic.

"I'll be a moment," he told her softly. She couldn't let him leave, so she reached for his hand and stood up. He looked down to make sure she was all right on her feet; she squeezed his palm to say she was. He let her follow him to the entrance, not wanting to lose the contact. He looked at her before letting go of her hand and she nodded and hid next to the wall. She heard him call out to one of his men and tell him that he wasn't to be disturbed, and to shoot anyone who tried to come. As soon as he came back in, Bane picked Talia up and headed towards the mattress.

He let her get in under the netting before him, then he took off his boots and undressed. He sat naked in front of her, already erect. She couldn't help but be in awe again at the sight of him. He helped her take the robe off and got worried again when he saw how tightly she had taped down her breasts. It had obviously been painful when he unwrapped them and found them bruised and discolored. He made her sit in front of him, her back to his chest, and he started gently massaging each one. She let her head fall back on his neck. She had missed his hands. So many others hands had touched her there, but they were never big or strong enough. She finished undressing herself as he continued kneading her chest, pinching her nipples when she started caressing herself.

She could feel him hard on her lower back, and she wanted him in her as soon as possible. He was thinking the same; keeping one hand on her breast, he let his other hand join hers. They both stroke her more and more rapidly. She spread her legs to give him space, and she pinched her bud and held it for him to stroke with his calloused fingers. She could feel herself flowing and she started biting his neck. He plunged two of his fingers deep in her. Both her hands spread apart her lips so he could get more in to stretch her. He had missed her warm wetness. It was taking all his willpower not to take her immediately, but he didn't want to cause her any pain.

His hand was soaked in her when she stopped him and guided it out of her to bring it to her mouth. She licked it slowly, looking at him; she then laid on her back in front of him, her legs open. He approached her like a tiger, slowly treading on all fours until he hovered above her. She was panting in anticipation; she violently stroked herself while she put her other hand on his mask. His mask mad a hissing sound as his breath grew heavier. She stopped caressing herself and took hold of his shaft. She pulled slowly as an invitation. He entered her slowly, as slowly as he could, feeling each part of his skin being surrounded by her walls, watching each reaction on her face, seeing her want, trying to control the hunger in his own eyes.

They rarely cried, it had always only happened together, but this time tears flowed in release. Her father's men had ripped them apart the last time they had been intimate, and had never thought to be connected like this again. When the friction started, it didn't take long for them to climax, but he continued rocking inside her until he was completely emptied. She kissed his wet eyes and cheeks when his head collapsed after the last spasm.

He rolled on his side, but kept her near the wall, remaining inside her a while after he had gone flaccid, keeping her pressed between him and the wall, shielding her from anything that could come in the cave. When he finally slipped out of her, they both looked at one another and pressed even tighter together. The cave was now pitch black and cold, but the fire they made together was all they needed to stay alive.


	7. Dance Circles Around Me

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note: I've been getting a few more requests about Bane and Talia in several situations leading to them being intimate. So this is a triple threat, answering the following requests (by the way, thank you so much for submitting them and I hope I do them justice):**

**Johnknight13, you wanted a scene during their time in the League (you can find more of that in my story _As I Slowly Fall into You), _so here you are...**

**Belle de Sainte Ange, you wanted a sparring match that turns intimate - here you go...**

**And an Anon on Tumblr wanted a scene where Bane is mesmerized by Talia belly dancing - also here!**

**Thank you so very much again for all your kind review - they really do fuel inspiration.**

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**VII. Dance Circles Around Me**

Ra's al Ghul stood still in front of the three black-clad men lined up in one of the training halls. Bane, at the far right, towered over the two others but stayed in line. They all stood erect, with their arms crossed behind their backs, their hands holding their elbows. Ra's surveyed them only with his eyes; his head did not move at all. Bane did not miss, however, the near-imperceptible sneer Ra's adopted when his eyes laid on the masked was growing more and more hostile towards his pupil, largely because the need for specific skills and for manpower forced him to send Talia and her monster on some missions together. The one benefit of this was that Ra's knew the beast would die before he let Talia fall, and the head of the League of Shadows was hoping for just that. Though Bane possessed a sharp mind and unparallel physical strength (even Ra's had to admit that), he was an animal whose violence couldn't be controlled and it sickened him that his wife had lived her last years with men like Bane.

The door opened to the left and Talia, also dressed in black, entered and took position in line with the others, her arms behind her back. She sent but a furtive glance towards Bane. Only his pupils moved; he had meant not to look at her at all, knowing her father watched him like a hawk, but he hadn't seen her in nearly two months and he almost sighed in relief when she walked in. Each time he saw her, she looked older. She was more beautiful than ever, but he started to see her father's coldness in her face. He couldn't blame her for it; warmth had long ago left his own eyes, except around her, when they were alone.

"You all know about the particulars of the mission, but let us review it in broad strokes," Ra's started saying in French. "We aim to obtain an aerotoxin formula from the Samall Lab in Fes. It could be a breakthrough in gaining the ability to produce mass hysteria. You know your roles: Zhang will take care of the software and technical requirements; Lars will liaise with our contacts in Morocco with Talia. Bane…" he pronounced the name without hiding his disdain, "will provide security and will assess and authenticate the correct formula since he is the most well-versed in chemistry available at the moment." By his tone, it was obvious Ra's was resentful of that fact, but he promptly continued his speech. "Only two men know of the formula, Dr. Chekhov and Dr. Gustavson. They are both employed and living in Morocco through the generosity of an unofficial branch of the government. They both like young women," he explained as he looked at his daughter. "We need to be able to attach transmitters to their persons, allowing us to record their conversations and know their whereabouts. Talia will get close to them," he finished, looking directly at Bane. The latter tried to remain stoic, so as not to give his mentor the satisfaction of knowing that his heart was torn apart at the thought that Talia was whored out by her father.

The more he stayed with the League, the less Bane could escape how flawed his leader was – he was brilliant but no less an egomaniac that the dictators they were working to bring down. Yet, Bane envied the strength it took to sacrifice everything, even your blood, to a cause; he knew that, however devoted he was to the ideals, he would never sacrifice Talia before sacrificing himself.

Ra's finished the debriefing, then left the room and only stopped a second in front of his daughter and nodded. She raised her chin proudly.

* * *

Bane and Talia remained separated for most of the trip. She plotted with Lars about their strategy on the ground, while Bane looked after the equipment with Zhang. Once in Fes, they even stayed in separate hotels. She had slipped him a paper with her room number on it, but he couldn't see a window of opportunity to see her without their companions finding out. If he wanted to keep them both safe in the League, they had to be careful.

The scientists would be at a local cabaret tonight and that was where Talia would make contact. Lars had gotten her a position as a dancer and was briefing her in the dressing room. Zhang was back at the hotel with the recording equipment, keeping radio contact with both Bane and Lars. Bane had a telegraphic device to answer because his mask amplified his voice too much. He was in the closed off balcony section, looking down at the patrons below through the curtains, watching belly dancers prance around the table. Talia hadn't come out yet, but seeing the dancers reminded him briefly of a time in the Pit, when she was about six – she had danced under the rain, galloping around Bane and other inmates as they enjoyed the shower from the well.

"Have you located them?" Zhang's voice interrupted the memory. "They're at the third table from the left, Chekhov is smoking a _nargileh_," Bane heard Lars answer through the earpiece. He spotted the two doctors in suits, already slightly inebriated as they chatted with a Moroccan in military clothes. Bane pressed his transmitter to signal to his companion that he had identified their marks.

He was observing how Gustavson leered at the dancers and, on more than one occasion, attempted to touch them. Bane crumpled the curtain at the thought of that man touching Talia. The rage delayed him noticing that Talia had just appeared. When he realized it, he froze. She was a vision, clad in a dark red chiffon skirt, slit on both sides to expose her legs, and a bejeweled bra covering her full bosom, with a string of shiny beads coming down to her belly button. She was wearing bangles on her wrists and angles and a shear scarf with fringes of coins around her hips. Her hair was similarly adored with jewels and she had a long sparkling black veil draped around her elbows.

She posed with her right leg bent in front of her, her foot pointing to the floor, and her back arched. Their targets had only given her a furtive look – fools, thought Bane; how could they be in front of such perfect beauty and not see it. The music started and Talia's hands started moving in circles as she arched her back even more and let her head fall backwards so that her long mane of black hair almost touched the ground. Her right hip started moving, letting the stings of coins bang together. She straightened her back up and starting raising her other hip, undulating her belly in waves up to her bust, while her fingers accentuated her movements. She stretched her veil on her back as she shimmied her upper torso in various directions, then went back to undulating. Unbeknownst to Bane, Talia had been learning various forms of baladi and Middle-Eastern dances in Switzerland, and she was especially talented.

Bane had attributed her growing sensuality and flexibility when they were intimate to her training with other men, but he was happily thinking that the dance could have contributed to it greatly. The way her body moved made him recall their last embrace and he couldn't take his eyes off her. He felt the rush of blood to his cheeks and as he continued looking at her twirl with her sparkled veil looking like she was dancing with a wave of stars, he felt the blood rush below as well. He tried to look away to regain his composure, but he couldn't.

When she came out to the floor, Talia had noticed him looking at her and only her. Following each new movement, she raised her eyes to catch her lover's gaze and was encouraged to pursue the dance. How she had missed his attention, his desire. She almost forgot the mission, since she was trying to dance for him; she imagined for a moment that she was dancing only for him and she felt her own blood rush.

She was brought back to reality when Gustavson brushed her back with his hand. Bane immediately frowned. Talia shook herself back into action and wrapped her veil around Gustavson's neck and forced herself not to look at Bane. She swirled, then she brushed her hand over Gustavson's arm, up to his wrist, where she secured the paper-thin magnetic transmitter, just under the bracelet of his watch. He thought she was teasing his arm and never noticed the addition. She then turned over and danced around the table, undulating her bust in front of Chekhov who had a huge grin on his face. She lowered her head, whipping her hair just a few inches away from his face, eliciting his immediate applause, then she slipped another transmitter on the handle of his briefcase just under the table. She threw her hair back, distracting their attention and she started moving her hands around her face. She gave a signal with her index that the bugs were in place.

Bane's eyes were glazed over. He hadn't even seen her put the bugs and he almost missed her signal. He mentally chastised himself and pressed on his telegraphic transmitter so that Zhang would know Talia had succeeded.

"It's all functional, I can hear them over the music – one signal is more muffled than the other, but it should work," Zhang told Bane. Talia completed her dance, utterly satisfied with herself. Now, if the transmitters allowed them to discover the location of the formula or the formula itself, she might not even have to meet with these men again. The plan was to have her get acquainted more personally with the scientists only if they couldn't get the information from the transmitters. She hoped technology wouldn't fail them, but all she could think about now was meeting with Bane.

Lars had left her in the dressing room, asking her if she could make it to the hotel by herself. She naturally said yes. She stopped herself from asking where Bane would be. She had no way of reaching him without the other two knowing since they weren't carrying cell phones. She put on other clothes and met with Zhang. Lars had already come by and left for an overnight trip to Casablanca to meet a contact. Zhang played a few of the recordings – nothing of interest for now.

"What's the range? We'll lose them when they take off the watch or drop the briefcase," Talia said, though she noticed they were receiving more than two signals. "No need, Bane has already bugged their houses. Now, all we need is the location of the lab, which is still classified," Zhang responded.

"Is that what Bane is doing now, searching for the lab?" she asked with as much boredom as she could fake.

"No, I venture he's training at the small gym. We've closed it off and marked it for repair after giving the hotel manager a little extra," Zhang answered distractively as he fiddled with the sound levels.

Talia feigned disinterest and said: "Well, my part's done and I'm exhausted. I'll get back to my hotel…away from the cockroaches," she teased, seeing how derelict these accommodations were compared to her lodgings.

She made sure to leave and take a cab in case Zhang or any other were observing her, then she had the driver stop two streets later and she walked back and made her way to the gym. It was in the basement near the boiler room. She could hear him grunt and breathe heavily, and she forced herself not to run, she ignored the "closed" sign hanging from the door and she entered the poorly lit gym room where Bane was pummeling a crude punching bag. He turned his head, keeping his broad, scarred back towards the door. He only completely turned around when he saw her.

"Bonsoir," she said with a shy smile. Bane advanced a bit and looked at his hands, not knowing what to do with them.

"You shouldn't be here," he said, worried of the consequences for her if her father found out.

She almost lost her smile but put it back on as she took off the black sweater she wore and unbuttoned her jeans, revealing she had kept her baladi costume, minus the coins and bangles. She took out her veil from her bag and put it over her shoulders.

Bane looked her up and down hungrily, then kept his eyes on his hands – his mask making a clicking sound from his staggered breathe.

"I came for a bit of exercise," Talia declared with a flirty tone.

"Talia, if Zhang sees you dancing for me…" Bane said with a defeated voice.

"I've already dance for you tonight," she interjected and forced him to raise his gaze to her. "I'm here to spar."

He raised an eyebrow. "There are no weapons for you here, and you are not dressed…" he started saying, amused, until she ran towards him, climbed over his shoulders and wrapped her veil around his neck, tightening while she whispered: "I think I have all the weapons I need".

He let himself fall on his hands and lowered his forehead suddenly to toss her above his head. She fell hard on her back on the mattress. She immediately recovered and pulled the veil. Bane was in attack position, on his toes with his knees bent and his fingers on the floor, ready to spring. She was elated to see the lines on the side of his eyes and the glint in his pupils. She returned the smile but threw the veil in his face and pulled it before he could grab it; that gave her time to lodge a kick in his ribcage. He caught her foot before the second kick and hurled her precisely on the punching back which dislodge from its hook and she fell on her back, laughing.

She rolled over and started dancing again for him, distracting him with her veil that had transformed into a black serpent that encircled the masked man. She landed a few kick before he grabbed the veil and used it to pull her to him, and he tightened it around her shoulders, before trapping her in his arms. He was ready for her to kick him, and she did but not strong enough to propel herself away from him. He simply squeezed her a bit more and that is what she had wanted; his arms were now like a straightjacket and her back was firmly pressed to his chest. She could feel his heart thumbing so hard that she thought it would burst through her. At first he anticipated her going limp as a ruse, but then her delicate fingers caressed his knuckles and she pressed her body closer to him and put her head backward to that he could rest his chin on the top of her head.

He bent his head and nestled his mask on the nape of her neck, exhaling long forceful breaths. It gave her goose bumps and he felt her trying to turn. He released his grip and let her face him. She put her hand on his mask, relishing the hot gushes of air coming from the mesh. Their eyes met and Bane let go of the veil. Talia caught it before it fell to her feet and she swung it above his head and glided it down his back.

Bane had decided he would simply kill Zhang if he came in at that moment and he put his hands on her small waist. She shivered at his touch, dropped the veil and reached to her back to unhook her bra, which fell to the floor. She pressed her naked chest to his, trying to melt into him. His large hands slipped in the waistline of her skirt and ripped the seam. No sooner was she nude that he tossed her violently on the floor mattress. She wondered for a moment if he was resuming their sparring but he was simply no longer able to contain his desire.

His palms roughly mapped out every inch of her skin and his hips spread her tights. They had little time for preparation so the first union was raw and painful. She dug her nails into his shoulders but she raised her legs up his torso and her pelvis met his in awkward wrestling match. Talia started biting, scratching and pawing - everything to prevent her from screaming how much she had missed him and how sweet this pain was. She wanted to prolong it, for him to go deeper, to go to the limit.

He was also trying to refrain from verbalizing his hunger, so his body violently started shaking and he plunged further until he hit the cervix, pressing as much as he could while looking at her face for a sign that he should stop. She was frowning but kept a smile, reassuring him she could bare it, wanted it and soon enough she bore his frantic spasms. For the first time, he came before her. Seeing how she had completely unraveled him to the point where he couldn't control himself and wait for her like he always did, though she never asked him to, made her smile stretch from ear to ear and pushed her over the edge. He hadn't yet finished emptying himself that she flooded him and started trashing violently around him. Bane was on top, but she had won this wrestling match and both were more than satisfied with the outcome.


	8. I Have Something for You

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note: I am still planning on updating _Gotham is Ours_ and _My Brother's Keeper_ soon, but I've been getting a few more drabble request. This one was regarding something from Talia's mother that Bane would keep for her. I went a different way than what the Anonymous request ask, but hopefully it gets the idea across. No smut here, just tenderness and consideration.**

* * *

**VIII. I Have Something for You**

When the princess had been lowered down in the Pit, she had been stripped of all her belongings except the clothes on her back. Her skirts and veil were colorful and decorated enough to give away her station in life, so the prison doctor had hastily brought her to her cell so the others prisoners couldn't get to her. He couldn't protect her from their leering and taunting, but the prison cell kept her from them from indulging in their baser instincts.

Soon enough, the cries of a baby were heard from her cell one night, provoking a ruckus of whistling and banging on the metal bars. The baby boy kept close to his mother, Bane only saw him at a distance for the first few years of his life and when he brought the woman and her child a few extra portions of food when he could. After years isolated in her cage, the woman felt some form of safety so she wasn't ready to defend herself when the doctor forgot to lock her in, and men, who had bided their time, rushed in.

Bane only had time to save the child. The little boy was in fact a girl and, after some time, he learned that her name was Talia. He decided to keep her gender a secret. For days, she cried for her mother and she spent nights fighting with Bane and trying to run away to the entrance of his cell, then running back to him when she heard other men.

One night, after she had fallen asleep on his cot, Bane went back to the cell where her mother had died and tried to look for something of hers. The cell had been overturned; a man was already sleeping on there. Bane was careful not to wake the man and potentially get into a fight. He found a bloody piece of cloth that he threw away. That's when his gaze caught a glint in the moonlight, just around one leg of the cot. He silently walked on four legs towards the shiny metal and gently reached out for it. It was a silver anklet with the words "light" and "dark" written in Arabic on the decorative coins that hung from it. He was sure it belonged to the princess. The dirt on the floor had almost entirely covered it up, and it was pure luck a coin had caught a ray of light as he was looking.

He came back to his cell to find the small child crying in a corner. She had woken up alone and thought he had gone as well. She ran up to him and threw herself in his arms when he came in.

"There child, I have something to show you," he told her while patting her shaved head.

She looked up at him, her slight frame still glued to his broad chest. He dried her eyes with his thumb and showed her the anklet. Her eyes widened and her breath stopped.

"It was your mother's?" he asked. Little Talia quickly nodded.

"She left it for you," he told her with a smile, which she returned. "You can wear it here, but not outside... so they don't take it. You understand?"

She nodded again while he wrapped it twice over her ankle and used a piece of thread from his blanket to tie it since the hook had been broken.

They had a little safe place, in the corner of his cell, where he had buried a wooden box. Whenever she took the ankle bracelet off, she put it there. At first, she wore it everyday but, as the years went by, she wore it less frequently, but whenever she felt the pang of her mother's absence or when they had a special evening - like when they could build a fire - she would wear it.

* * *

Bane was looking at her sleep now and he thought of those nights. She was wearing one of his large sweaters and was covered in his sheepskin coat; she looked so tiny in his clothes that it wasn't hard remembering her as a child.

When she had escaped the pit, he had wanted to go back and get the anklet but he had been too injured to move. When he was finally brought back to his cell, the doctor kept a close watch and he didn't want to risk revealing the location of his hiding place. Later, when Ra's al Ghul had taken him from the Pit, he hadn't said anything, but he kept hoping to go back. Years passed and they didn't mention it during their training in the League, but he would noticed her touching her ankle sometimes, when she was sitting alone or reading in front of a fireplace, and he saw the same loneliness in her eyes.

After his excommunication, he had built up a new Brotherhood. As he was cast out from her life, he has aimed to go back to the Pit, when he had the manpower and the means; he would try to find it, hoping it was still there, so he could have something of hers for him to keep with him if he couldn't have her in his life.

But then, miraculously, she followed him in exile and found him again. He thought for a while of forgetting about the piece of jewelry, but he was reminded of in whenever he saw that familiar loneliness cloud her eyes. She had learned to hide most of her emotions, but her eyes couldn't fake it, not for him, nor the quiver of her mouth.

He grazed her lower lip with his thumb as he was reminded her tics he found endearing and she woke up and smiled at him.

"I have something for you," he told her as she sat up. He walked to one of his cases and drew out a small, worn-down wooden box. Her eyes jumped form the box to him, quizzical and anxious, not daring to think how familiar this box was. He sat on the bed next to her and she kneeled beside him on the mattress and looked at him carefully open the box and take out the silver anklet.

He held it up as his eyes slowly turned to her. Her fingers shook as she touched it. It had been tarnished by time but she knew it instantly. She almost couldn't breathe. She clasped the hand with which he was holding the heirloom and brought it to her lips, kissing his fingers and the metal, as a tear ran down her cheek.

"You kept it all this years," she said – astonished.

"I kept in mind," he answered. "I had to go back for it."

She remembered his absence a few weeks back, when he had not wanted to reveal what it was. He had asked her not to try and find out and she respected his wishes. She had a feeling he was going back to the Pit, but she understood he wanted to go alone and trusted him to tell her when he was ready.

Now, he had brought back the only thing her mother had left her; he had remembered it, and had brought it back for her. She put it on her ankle and hugged him as hard as she could. Again, as it had been the case time and time again, Bane had done what her father never did… he went back for her and her mother.


	9. A Single Shot

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : This is another drabble request where Talia gets shot during a mission for the League.**

* * *

**IX. A Single Shot**

"I am going to the library, I should get the key shortly," Talia said while looking at her watch. She had tried to make her message obscure enough that eavesdroppers couldn't possibly know that she was following Philippe Labrecque to retrieve a list her father was particularly keen to get his hands one.

Bane had once again been allowed to be on a mission with Talia because he was to receive the USB Key and then leave for Hong Kong for the next phase of the mission. He was following her progress, like Zhang through an earpiece.

"I should be out in 5 minutes," she added. The rest of the transmission was a mixture of noises from the loud party, then a muffled swoosh, a groan and a thump. Bane and Zhang looked at each other; they had immediately understood that a silencer had been used to shoot a gun. They heard a door slam and, a few minutes later; Labrecque was running out of the front door frantic to get his car from the valet. Bane's eyes looked crazed, he barked at Zhang to follow Labrecque and made his way to the back of the house. He hoisted himself up to a dark window and got into a bathroom. "Talia," he was saying to the microphone on his wrist, hoping she would hear him through her earpiece. He heard a sound between a whimper and a cough when he repeated her name; he felt the veins pulsing in his head. "Where are you?" he asked with urgency.

"Library," she finally responded, but with such strain that his heart almost pumped out of his chest. He knew the library was on the second floor. He wanted to sprint up there but the League of Shadows had to maintain complete secrecy and the breathing apparatus he wore over his face made him too conspicuous. Since he was in a side wing, he was able to slip out in another room and set the curtains on fire using a lighter after he emptied a bottle a gin on them. The fire alarm was soon followed by panicked screams and that is when he made his move. His mask could easily be misinterpreted in the commotion as smoke protection. He got to the library on the now deserted second floor and opened the door swiftly. His almost frozen when he saw Talia in a fetal position on the floor, holding her stomach. He ran to her and dropped to his knees. He was relieved when she opened her eyes. "He… was waiting for me," she struggled to say because of the pain. The bullet had lodged itself right above the hipbone. It was very painful but not immediately fatal, she had just fainted.

Bane's eyes were bouncing everywhere and sweat was pearling on his head. He ripped a part of the hem of her dress and put her hand over it. "Put pressure on it." She nodded and swallowed so as not to yelp when he picked her up. He carried her down a service stairs. He could hear the sirens coming from the front street He went out a side door and kept his head down so that onlookers would not notice him. The fire hadn't spread but the high society crowd was all-aflutter about the evening's commotion

He kept his head down to hear Talia breathing and feel her breath on his neck. She was holding on to his collar with one hand, making sure she had pressure on her wound with the other. She felt so foolish. Her father would surely be disappointed.

"I've got the key," they heard Zhang's transmission just as they reached the van that served as their mobile command center. Bane carefully laid Talia in the back and closed the door. "And Labrecque?" Bane asked distractively. He was looking for the First Aid kit.

"He's now at the bottom of the river," Zhang answered. "Talia?"

"Injured," Bane curtly answered. "Go get the doctor," he told Zhang, knowing he could find a League-affiliated doctor fairly quickly, but perhaps not quickly enough. He was so nervous he dropped the iodine bottle and it imbibed a few gauze rolls. He carefully took Talia's hand off his makeshift bandage and ripped the entire bottom of her dress to look at her wound. It was still bleeding profusely, but he couldn't close it if she had a bullet it her. He at least disinfected around the wound with iodine. He took one of his anesthesia needles. She tried to protest - she didn't want him depleting his supply, but he kept her shoulder firmly on the floor and she held on to his wrist as he inserted the needle. The pain eventually came to subside and she rubbed his arm to reassure him, seeing how worried he was. She had put the entire mission in peril, including him; she should have noticed that Labrecque had made her out and not have gotten blindsided, she berated herself in her mind.

Bane had rudimentary medical knowledge and, if it had been one of the other men or himself, he would have fished out the bullet without a second thought, but his hands shook – He couldn't risk her. What if he aggravated the injury? What if he caused an infection? The indecision was killing him.

"Zhang, the doctor?" he called.

"I've got one, I'll be there in 15 minutes."

Bane brushed Talia's hair away from her forehead and looked at her, making sure she stayed awake. "I'll be ok," she told him. "Remember when I had that big fever? You remember?" He nodded, remembering how, in the Pit, when she was around eight years old, she had gotten ill and he hadn't slept for four days until her fever broke. "This is nothing," she kept saying to calm him, but he knew that is what she was doing. He kept pressure on the gauze over the wound.

After what felt like a lifetime, the doors open and Zhang and another man still in a nightgown came in. "The bullet is still in there," Bane told the disheveled man who was immediately intimidated by the masked man before him.

"Ok," said the doctor while he lifted the gauze. "Right," he looked at both men; "we should bring her to my clinic". Zhang nodded and immediately took the driver's seat.

"I gave her a local anesthesia, for the pain," Bane admitted.

"What is it?" the doctor asked.

"I'm not sure, the formula is changed often," Bane answered. "It's very short term."

Once at the clinic, Bane carried Talia in and gave Zhang a livid look when he realize the man was a veterinarian. His Brother opened his hands and lifted his shoulders indicating they didn't have a choice.

Once Talia was on the table, the doctor was about the ask Bane and Zhang to leave but didn't finish his sentence before Bane's look shot him down. Bane was trying to contain his emotions so that Zhang wouldn't see his distress. He was itching to hold her hand so his fingers kept fidgeting. Talia kept an eye on them to distract herself. She was also not allowing herself to grab his hand – too afraid that Zhang would see their intimacy and report back to her father.

The doctor had wanted to put her under but she had refused and, though he didn't want her in pain, Bane was happy she would remain awake. He would have had difficulty handling not knowing if she would wake up or not.

The doctor was able to recover the whole shell and happily announced the bullet had not fragmented. No major artery had been severed and no bone had shattered. Talia was embarrassed to have to reveal she had fainted, because it was probably out of shock rather than blood loss. She had never been shot before, but she had known pain and this is not how she had wanted to handle this. She gave a curt thank you to Zhang for completing the mission (_her_ mission), and she refused Bane's help when she sat up after the doctor had finished the sutures. She wanted to be alone with her protector but knew she couldn't.

Bane had wished for the first time his mask would have covered his entire face because he knew he had failed to hide his worry and then his relief at Talia's condition.

He left immediately, telling them he's meet them at their base. He used the night to walk the streets back to their hideout and clear his thoughts. She was a trained assassin, he should accept the possibility, and perhaps the inevitability, she could die on these missions... but he could not. When Zhang arrived at the house with Talia, Bane was destroying a wood column he used as a punching target.

He didn't say anything to either. He just nodded in their direction but cracked the slimmest of smile as he watched her walk by herself.

Two hours before dawn, after he confirmed that Zhang was sleeping, he went to check up on Talia. He looked at the bandage over her hip and was satisfied it wasn't bloody. He sat next to her bed and took her hand in his. She squeezed it back.


	10. Making You Proud

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note: We are still on the tenderness train for this entry. This is a short drabble following a request about a more fatherly relationship (which certainly plays in their relationship in my headcanon) where Bane is proud of Talia's skills as she becomes a Wayne Board member sooner than expected.**

* * *

**X. Making You Proud  
**

They had taken over the mining operations in Northern Tunisia but hadn't secured the site yet. They had subdued the local General who controlled it, but others had their eye on the reach mines and Bane and his Brothers had found themselves in armed conflict with various militia groups for almost a week. In truth, they could have squashed the attacks easily, but the disturbance allowed Bane to siphon more money from John Daggett, a wealthy and greedy construction mogul based in Gotham. The money was then transferred to an offshore account accessible by Talia. Unbeknownst to Daggett, he was financing the rise of Miranda Tate, shrewd businesswoman and activist.

Bane was in a tent, observing a map of the area to determine where he would position sentinels when Barsad came in, presumably to see where to send the men. His leader showed him the red pins on the map. Barsad nodded but lingered a while before leaving. The masked-man turned looked directly at him.

"I've had news from Gotham; Miranda Tate was elected to the Wayne Enterprises board," he said with a smile. So soon, Bane thought, happily surprised. He shut his eyes as acknowledgment and turned his back to his right-hand man, who left immediately. When he was sure he was alone, he let himself smile broadly. Only his eyes would reveal it, but he wanted this joy to be private. He was so proud of his Talia. She had done it; she had successfully transformed into Miranda Tate and had wormed her way into Bruce Wayne's company almost a year before the plan. She had always been strong-willed, smart and determined, even when she was a child. After all, she did what no other man had ever done – she had escaped the Pit. She was born with nothing except suffering, yet she overachieved everything, ever since he took her under his care. He remembered telling her about the outside world and how she listened to every word, and wouldn't forget any details. He recalled showing her how to make a fire, how to ration food, how to repair clothes with twigs and straw... and she learned it all so easily.

After their reunion, and during their time the League of Shadows, he had seen her blossom. He remembered, when they finally had access to books, how applied she was when he helped her study. Her skills in languages were as good as his and her acting abilities were unparalleled. Her father, the Head of the League, didn't show his pride in her. Ra's al Ghul was never able to appreciate her potential. There was never any doubt in Bane's mind that she would succeed, but he was no less proud of his little Talia and was simply astounded at how she continued to surpass even his highest expectations.

* * *

Miranda had celebrated her appointment to the Wayne board with the Wayne Enterprises CEO and other board members, including John Daggett (who promptly tried to pick her up, unsuccessfully). She had stayed for a few cocktails, hoping to see Bruce Wayne but, as was the norm these days, he did not attend.

She had won over Lucius Fox with her passionate plea for environmental technology and he had backed her up as a new voting member. After months of work, she had been able to convince Gotham's business elite that she was a successful European entrepreneur, educated at Oxford (where she had never been), who had come to America to increase her company's stake in green energy. She read everything she could about the market, studied the curriculum of business degrees and she knew more than some around the board table. No one doubted for a moment that she was who she pretended to be. She had gone back alone to her apartment after the party and had gone to bed quite satisfied with herself.

The phone woke her up at around 4:00 am. "Yes," Miranda answered, still drowsy.

At first she only heard static. "Hello?" she repeated. Finally, she heard a hiss and the metallic sound of his breathing. Talia took the receiver with both hands and pressed it closer to her ear so she could listen to him taking in air.

"You called," she stated simply.

"Yes. Congratulations are in order," he answered – his voice amplified by his breathing device.

"Yes, Miranda succeeded," she replied with glee.

"Talia succeeded... as she always does," he contradicted her.

She bit her lower lip and felt a knot in her throat. She sat on her bed and looked at Gotham through her bedroom window, wishing she could be under the African sun with him.

"You make your father proud, child," Bane told her.

"Which father do you speak of?"

"Ra's, of course."

"He's not the father I think of first when I accomplish something, because he's not the father who always believed in me, even when I was nothing. He's not the father who raised me up."

She heard him swallow on the other side of the line and her own voice was shaky with emotions.

"Are you proud of me?" she asked, her eyebrows arching high when she nervously formulated the question.

"Always," he immediately answered.


	11. So Be It

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : I got a drabble request about Talia being pregnant with Bane and Ra's sending her to the Pit, which I found problematic within my own headcanon. Another person suggested that I would write a drabble about a pregnancy scare and how Bane and Talia would react. I mixed the two ideas and this is what I came up with...**

* * *

**XI. So Be It**

Talia wiped the fog off the cabinet mirror. She had just stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. Upon seeing her reflection, she realized how mature she looked now. She was no longer a girl, but a woman, with red sensual lips, stern straight shoulders, rounded hips and full breasts. Her wet hair falling straight behind her ears made her realize how much more angular her face was now. She was more stunning than ever, but gone were the plump baby cheeks and her wide eyes. Her eyes now were steely and cold – she could see that.

She was only just beginning adulthood, yet she felt like she had lived several lifetimes. Her time in the League of Shadows, under the demanding tutelage of her father had taken its toll. She used her body to ensnare and killed, used her mind to manipulate and bend others' will to her own, yet she couldn't influence her father's opinion; he simply would not accept Bane and she knew he would never welcome the change in their relationship (_despite the irrefutable proof she and Bane had coupled,_ she thought as she rubbed her stomach).

She had not had her period in two months and she was increasingly suffering from fatigue. She now would routinely fall down during sparring exercises and her mind was in a fog. She couldn't ignore the changes in her body and, soon, no one else would. She had thought herself infertile – at least that is what the League doctors thought after discovering she had anovulatory cycles. She had always protected herself when she was intimate with men… except with Bane. The man who had been everything to her – father, brother, friend, lover – would now be a father to her child, and she knew her own father would hate him even more for it. Ra's al Ghul saw Bane as a beast unfit to be so familiar with his daughter.

The bathroom door suddenly opened and her father stood behind her. Though she hadn't seen him in years, his sneer was the same as it ever was but the disdain he used to only shower Bane with was now washing down on her. He knew – she didn't have to tell him; he knew. She instinctively put her hands on her stomach.

"Child, you have an abomination in you. You must be purified," he coldly told her, from behind.

Still looking at him through the mirror, without turning around, she answered: "No father, I will not."

He breathed in slowly through the nose to contain his anger, then his expression softened. "You look so much like your mother, and you have her spirit," he admitted, reaching out for one strand of her hair then looking at her through the mirror. "Daughter, you escaped from the hell she died in. By having this fiend's child, you would imprison yourself back in that Pit, forever."

"Then, that is where I belong father," Talia answered without hesitation. She hadn't known what to do about the pregnancy until then. She could never kill anything Bane had given her – never refuse it. He had suffered so much for her.

Ra's al Ghul's eyes bulged out at her defiance but he remained stoic. He squeezed both her arms. "So be it," he replied. He kissed her on the back of the head, then looked away before putting her out by plunging a syringe in her neck. She woke up in the back of a truck, with her hands and ankles tied. She could feel the scorching sun but couldn't speak out as she was also gagged. When they stopped, she knew… she knew he had sent her to the Pit where she was born.

She was lowered down the well, still bound so she couldn't move. She saw the familiar face of the doctor who untied her once she was on the ground. He quickly ushered her to a cell, much like he must have done with her mother, and sat her down on the cot where her mother had waited the last months of her pregnancy and given birth. She thought of her protector; would he ever know how and why she disappeared? He would never stop looking for her if he found out. She shed a tear thinking her father would most probably kill Bane before he ever knew she carried his child.

She rubbed her expanding belly everyday until, one day, the Pit was stormed by military men, who rappelled down and knocked down everyone in their paths. Talia looked between the bars and spotted a tall, large man in black, with his head and face covered. She was certain it was him. His head was darting in every direction. Their eyes met at last. He uncovered his head and she finally saw the familiar mask covering his mouth and she stretched out her arm to him. With four paces he had reached her and he flung the cell door open. The doctor cowered in the adjoining cell. Talia looked at her belly, hoping he would know it was his. He knelt down and put his large hand on her stomach and looked at her with water pooling in his eyes. "I know," he said.

Talia smiled; _yes, he would know and he would have found her_… she put her hand on his when he came behind her in the bathroom and rubbed her stomach. She leaned her head back against his chest as he rested the muzzle of his mask on her head. "I'm pregnant," she told him in the dialect their shared from Pit, their own special language.

He took in two deep breaths and blinked. "I know," he answered as she had previously imagined, and his thumb caressed the skin around her bellybutton.

"I was envisioning what my father would have done... that he would have sent me back to the Pit, that you would have found me."

He wrapped both arms around her and she turned around to hug him in return. She lifted her chin to look at him; she knew he was smiling from looking at his eyes.

"We no longer need to concern ourselves with your father," he replied, brushing a strand of hair away from her forehead. "He tried and failed to keep us apart,"" Bane continued, confident now, after his excommunication and Talia defying Ra's to come to him, that they would never been separated by her father.

"You are happy then, with the news?" Talia asked tentatively, knowing she wanted to keep it but not knowing how it would be possible with the lives they led.

"Of course," he said merrily and she could see in his gaze he was sincerely happy.

The elation was short-lived as it turned out to be a false alarm and the red stain in their bed crushed the illusion of fertility – she had simply been under stress and affected by the extreme changes in temperatures and climates during their travels. Bane was equal part disappointed and relieved. He had not really thought of raising a child, but he would not refuse Talia anything and he was honored that she would have his baby. It broke his heart seeing her pain though. When the doctor left after confirming her infertility, she threw herself in his arms, in a rare moment of despair, and sobbed for the rest of the day. He didn't leave her side for the next three weeks as she stayed in their room, sending his men to act as emissaries and to furnish the necessary supplies.

Talia gradually became herself again and, one afternoon, she opened the curtains to let the sun in again and she smiled broadly at him.

"I though this… this was a curse from my father," she explained, half-laughing. "Another way of tearing us apart," she added while her hand started playing with his. "I never wanted children Bane," she revealed, "but I would have wanted yours, because it would have linked us forever."

He was too emotional to talk and wanted to let her finish her thoughts, so he simply caressed her cheek with the tip of his fingers. "But we don't need a child, do we? We'll create something else together. We are linked forever?" she asked as much as she stated. Her hand rested on his mask so she could feel him breathing.

He could only get out a choked "yes" that was deformed by the mask. He then squeezed her as tightly as he could without breaking her. Nothing would take her from him, he would always find her in this life, in this world and in the next... the world they would birth together.


	12. My Girl

**Disclaimer : I do not own any of these characters, which are based on Christopher Nolan's TDKR.**

**Author's note : This story comes from another drabble request where Talia and Bane are on a mission, she is ambushed in the hotel room and he saves her. I warn you there is some violence coming up.**

**Thank you for all the wonderful review. I will try to thank you personally soon, but know it really touches me and keeps me writing - thank you!**

**This week, I plan to go back to _Gotham is Ours_ and _My Brother's Keeper_ - so look for updates there too :)**

* * *

**XII. My Girl**

Talia had put on loose pajama pants and a grey tank top, just in case Aasif would come by with Bane to debrief her. They should finish their business within an hour and contact her. She hoped that Bane could somehow stay over tonight, but it had been difficult just to get time alone during this mission (she had her father to thank for that – she was sure of it). Talia finished brushing her teeth thinking she would have to find a way for her father to accept Bane. They were sent on fewer missions together lately and always with men extremely loyal to Ra's al Ghul, who Talia suspected were also there to spy on her. Her father knew of her attachment to her protector, but he didn't know she had given herself to him as a lover and she didn't know how long she would be able to hide it.

She and Bane had been able to spend only a few hours together during this mission and she yearned for his body at night. She knew he was as restless as she was, but until they proved themselves to Ra's and they could be more independent, they had to endure the separation and the uneasy sleep.

Such thoughts always distracted her and made her weak. She barely had time to duck when a man, with a full headcover, lunged at her. She rolled over on the floor and got back on her feet. She realized then that there were two others men in the room. Where had they come from? She noticed the opened window, but how could they have come in without a sound? These weren't ordinary killers, they were stealth assassins. Her sword was in a case in the closet near the door. She had found this mission so tedious and had been so distracted by her longing for Bane that she hadn't been as prepared as she should have been – _stupid girl_, she thought. She ran on top of the bed, aiming for the nightstand to get the gun out of the drawer, but one of the other men used a leather sash and whipped it so it wrapped around her ankle and made her fall on the mattress. He tugged it and she slid on her stomach atop the bed; she quickly tried to grab the comforter and sheets as she saw another man come from the side with a knife. She seized one of the pillows and threw it at him, but he swiftly deflected it. She reached for another pillow and just had time to hold it as a shield when the blade descended on her, forcing her arms to bend as the pillow pushed down on her face and shoulder, where the blade bit the surface of her skin, through the stuffing. Hands immobilized her legs. She closed her eyes, waiting for the next blow to be in her face. She thought of Bane, like she always did to reassure herself.

She didn't hear the commotion around her any more; she just imagined his beautiful face as it was in the Pit, unarmed and unencumbered by the mask, and his warmth as he took her into his arms. She would go out of this world looking at his face and she smiled.

* * *

Bane and Aasif had been tipped by the League that they had been identified, so they were on the lookout for an ambush. Aside from a few suspicious glares on the streets, nothing happened, and those gazes were easily explained by Bane's size. He wore a chapan, a pakul and an scarf to cover his mask, but his height and girth were intimidating in any clothes. They aborted a part of the plan and decided to take out their informant earlier than expected. Bane started to worry about Talia. He didn't share it with his comrade, but he couldn't take his mind off his girl. He convinced Aasif to take care of the assassination while he would make the arrangements for them to leave the city and get Talia. As soon as he dropped Aasif, he sped towards the Talia's hotel.

The hotel was mediocre six-story inn. He knew something was amiss when he saw the reception area was deserted. He ran up the stairs, four steps at a time. Once on the fifth floor, he steadied his breathing and put his ear on the Talia's door. It was mostly silence until he heard Talia's muffled yelp. He would recognize her voice through any noise. He had to control his growing fury to avoid making a rash move. He slipped his spare key in the knob carefully and turned it very slowly before sliding the door open. When the chain blocked it, he rammed the door in with his boot and rushed in the room. He saw three hooded men around the bed were Talia was on her stomach, being pulled by her ankles. One of the men approached her with a knife. Bane didn't let panic overtake him. One of the other men had heard him and turned towards him. Bane kept his eye on Talia when he hit the assailant in the face with his large hand, his lower palm bumping violently into the assassin's nose, ramming the bone into his brain with blunt force. As his associate fell dead, the man with the knife threw Talia's pillow to the side.

Images of his little girl being attacked in the Pit rushed in Bane's mind and it made him even more rabid. Talia hadn't seen him since she was trying to protect herself with another pillow. Bane broke the neck of the man who was pulling at her ankle with his sash. He then put his hands on her legs while the last assassin was about to strike the fatal blow to Talia. He seized the man's arm and broke it, the bone ripping out of the elbow, and he pulled Talia from under him. Bane threw her on the floor while he fought the man and stabbed him repeatedly with his own knife until the killer stopped moving.

Talia took a moment to understand what was happening when she felt herself yanked from the bed. She kept her eyes closed so that she wouldn't lose the image of her protector while they killed her. When she hit the floor, she peeked and saw two bodies on the floor. She opened her eyes wide and turned her head towards the bed to see Bane slaughter the man who was going to murder her. The killer stopped moving when the blade was rammed into his face, like he was about to do to her. She crawled on the bed and put her hand on Bane's bloody knuckles, she surrounded his large back with her other arm and she put her head on his shoulder.

Her hand calmed him down as it always did. He let go of the knife and took her in his arms, keeping her head close to his neck, where he could feel her breathe. He picked her up with one arm and took her off the bed. He had no interest in knowing who these assassins were – they meant nothing; what mattered was that they had tried to hurt his Talia, his girl. She whispered about her sword. Without letting her go, he took the case out of the wardrobe. He put a small timebomb in its place and set it at 8 minutes. He carried her out of the room and down the stairs. The reception was still deserted.

He went around the driver's side of the car and put her in, then took the driver's seat. She never let go of him. He drove a block further then turned the vehicle so he could look at the hotel. It was soon rocked by an explosion on the fifth floor that set a fire that started engulfing the entire building. Talia looked at the flames and smiled. She wrapped her arms even more tightly around Bane's torso and kissed his neck. She didn't stop kissing him when he started the car again and drove away to go meet Aasif and get out of the country.


End file.
